Tigers at Rangers: July 2-5

Don’t worry… AJ had Vierling in there to hit against a LHP.

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Frustrated Austin Powers GIF

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Sell it all… burn it to the ground.

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Fire Burn GIF by CaptainBNB

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Apparently it is due to the world cup.

A 2pm game at ATT stadium todsy which is near the Rangers stadium, a ten min walk. The Friday off day is to avoid the major traffic issues, as one game ends and the other crowd arrives.

Second time the Rangers have done this.

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Is Veirling tradeable? Maybe him and AJ can be a package…or a burlap sack

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AJ Hinch and Veirling for Yordon Alverez.

We should get HSV to negotiate it. I have no doubt that he could pull it off.

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Who do we replace Hinch with?

Anyone hear from @Lionpile ? He blocked me so cant reach out to him.

What did you do to him. :rofl:

Apparently Complained. Yet was right

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# It would be crazy if Dillon Dingler is not named to MLB All-Star Game
full article at link

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Dingler has the most grueling job on the Tigers’ roster – not just the physical grind but the mental side as well – and he’s doing it at the highest level possible.

“He’s playing at the top of the game at a position that’s really hard to play, and I say that with all respect to every position, as catcher biased as I am,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday. “He’s doing incredible things.”

Dingler has emerged as a critical piece of the offense, hitting near the top of the order. He’s put up eye-popping numbers. He’s the emotional bedrock of this team – nothing ever fazes him.

Whenever a Tigers pitcher has an outstanding performance, more often than not, they heap credit on Dingler. And it’s obvious he deserves to be named to the MLB All-Star Game when the final rosters are released Saturday, July 4. The game will be played July 14 in Philadelphia.

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Dingler hitting rare territory

Let’s start with the stats.

At the 80-game mark of the season, Dingler had a career-best 19 home runs, 59 RBIs, 18 doubles and two triples.

Do you know how many Tigers have ever started a season with an offensive explosion like that? I’m talking, in the 126-year history of the Tigers? Only two others: Hank Greenberg, who did it three times (1935, 1937 and 1946) and Rocky Colavito (1961).

“I’m having a better plan going up to the plate, and I’m getting pitches that I’m looking for, especially this last month,” Dingler said. “I’m getting pitches to hit.”

Let me stress something else: Dingler is the only player in all of baseball to have reached those totals so far this season.

Do you know how rare that is for a catcher?

The last catcher to do that was Hall of Famer Iván Rodríguez when he played with Texas in 2000.

The fun way of saying that: In the first half of this season, Ding has reached Pudge levels.

Dingler is the best catcher in baseball according to darn near every metric. He has a 3.9 fWAR, which blows away Shea Langeliers from the Athletics, who is second at 2.2.

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Finally, here’s a fun stat shared by Peter Chase, the Tigers’ PR guru, which shows how Dingler handles pressure moments and comes through in the clutch.

Entering Friday, Dingler leads the majors with 34 two-out RBIs this season, and is one of only four Tigers in the past 50 years to reach or exceed 34 two-out RBIs prior to the All-Star break, joining Miguel Cabrera (37, 2013), Prince Fielder (34, 2013) and Mickey Tettleton (34, 1993).

Translation: Dingler is the dude you want hitting with somebody in scoring position.

So, let me beat that drum again: It would be ridiculous if Dingler doesn’t make the All-Star Game.

“You kind of don’t realize it growing up, but the All-Star Game, it’s pretty much all about your good start,” Dingler said. “It doesn’t capture a full season.”

Get ready for a pivot folks.

Get ready for pure Dingler.

Because this man is never satisfied.

“So, hopefully, I’m able to do what I did this first half and kind of transfer it into the second half and have a full complete year,” he said. “But you know it is a huge honor. Nobody can ever take that away, being an All-Star in the league, so it would be a huge honor, and you know it is what it is. If it doesn’t happen, you can’t do anything about.”

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full article at link, including the great name chosen for their child

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# Kevin McGonigle has airtight case to make MLB All-Star Game in Philly

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Kevin McGonigle had no idea how MLB players vote for the All-Star Game.

Everything is still new to him.

“It was really cool,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it worked until I was sent the link. You go through each position, and you get to see their WAR, their stats and stuff like that. It was just cool being able to go through each position and pick who I think should be in it.”

“What was it like seeing your name on that list?” I asked. “Not just your name, but your WAR.”

He broke into a smile.

“I don’t think it really has hit me,” he said.

Let me be clear from the start: McGonigle deserves to make the All Star Game.

The final roster – starters and reserves – will be revealed Saturday (7:30 p.m., Fox), and the game will be played on July 14.

Entering Thursday, McGonigle (4.4 bWAR, as calculated by Baseball Reference) and Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. (4.5 bWAR) were the only two shortstops in the American League with a bWAR greater than 2.4. (Witt was the heavy leader in the second phase of All-Star starter voting, with 72% of the vote to the 28% for Toronto’s Andrés Giménez.)

Actually, Witt is second among all MLB position players in bWAR, while McGonigle is third. Only Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong – a National Leaguer at 5.2 bWAR) – tops them.

Let me translate that into English: No matter how young he is, McGonigle is having a great season – better than almost everybody else – and has earned the recognition that comes with the Midsummer Classic.

You wanna know what makes this even better?

McGonigle grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, where this year’s All Star Game will be played.

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Most of the time, he hits in front of catcher Dillon Dingler in the batting order.

And before every game, McGonigle says: “Hey, I’m gonna get on, you get me in today.”

They’ve done it so many times, it’s become a tradition.

But when the Tigers were playing in New York, Hinch flipped the order, putting Dingler in front of McGonigle.

So, Dingler flipped the conversation: “All right, now it’s your turn,” he said.

So, McGonigle drove in Dingler.

“Having Dingler behind me gives me a lot of confidence when I’m out there, knowing that I’m gonna get pitches to hit because Dillon Dingler is coming up right after me,” McGonigle said.

Pull that quote apart and you will find at least a couple elements: an appreciation for his teammate and a high baseball IQ. But there’s something else – it’s pretty dang cool to imagine these two together for years to come.

“The way [Dingler] carries himself is really cool to watch and learn from,” McGonigle said. “It’s the way he goes about his business; the work he puts in off the field is really special as well, like in the weight room and stuff like that.”

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In my eyes, the most impressive thing about McGonigle is how he’s handling all the attention.

In darn near every city, reporters flock to him to talk.

He stands there and answers questions. And he’s still the same kid – he won’t turn 22 until mid-August – who was trying to make this team in spring training.

“He’s kept a pretty level head,” Hinch said. “As guys get more attention and get a little bit more comfortable at this level, it’s easy to ease off the things that have gotten you here, and he doesn’t. I mean, he’s as competitive today as he was the first day trying to make this team, and he’s handled the onslaught of media attention, fan attention on the field, off the field. We’re hitting him at the top of the order. He’s getting no rest. We’ve thrown a lot of this kid, and he’s stayed very, very true to what has gotten him here, and what he’s all about.”

In short, he’s an All-Star.

But he still has the same humble mentality.

“I still have a lot of work to do,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been holding myself accountable with the plays I mess up and trying to learn from them, and I think I’m doing a pretty solid job so far.”

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and to no one’s surprise

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Marsee hit .292 last year. Mystifying….

I’m not sure how to recognize it in how a system is doing it but if you take a look at Cleveland they’re offense isn’t any better than ours and is probably worse. They’re starting staff is less talented. But they keep pumping out High leverage relievers over and over again. The Tigers cannot seem to come up with even one guy that you can fully trust for more than one season as an eighth or ninth any guy and it’s been that way for decades.

Right now this is the biggest glaring problem in the entire system. It came back to really bite him in the ass this year and between that the large amount of injuries and the poor performance of hinges players and pet system it pretty much tank this season. This season is over. They are 12 games under on July 4th when clearly they were expected to compete for an American League pennant and be in that 87 to 92 win range.

Any kind of asset fire sale they do to be honest needs to be for Bullpen arms that are projectable in higher leverage roles that aren’t getting the option for that right now in the majors or who are close to Majors ready and they need at least two of them.

Even if all three free agent eligible starters don’t come back they still have enough starting pitching. They would probably add one in that case if all three didn’t return but they wouldn’t have to out of dire necessity. There’s a lot of Talent on the hitting side and more coming and be honest Hinch just needs to get out of the way of some of it.

Ever since the last Big World Series contending group we’ve seen this team continue to try to plug the closer role with veteran guys who clearly have a lot of variance in there your ability now and it’s not work and it’s never worked and it needs to stop happening.

https://x.com/EvanPetzold/status/2073452498212303125?s=20

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Riley Greene with a 2out 2run shot in the first

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He has been so good this year. Streaky but very good.

https://x.com/tigers/status/2073501272397713896?s=20

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Ugh, damn Jack was sooo close to clean through 6…oh well, this was def one of his best outtings this season.

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If the Tigers had just an average bullpen…,

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